For more than three decades, the continued miniaturization of silicon metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) has driven the worldwide semiconductor industry. Various showstoppers to continued scaling have been predicated for decades, but a history of innovation has sustained Moore's Law in spite of many challenges. However, there are growing signs today that MOSFETs are beginning to reach their traditional scaling limits. A concise summary of near-term and long-term challenges to continued CMOS scaling can be found in the “Grand Challenges” section of the 2002 Update of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). A very thorough review of the device, material, circuit, and systems can be found in Proc. IEEE, Vol. 89, No. 3, March 2001, a special issue dedicated to the limits of semiconductor technology.
Since it has become increasingly difficult to improve MOSFETs and therefore complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) performance through continued scaling, methods for improving performance without scaling have become critical. One approach for doing this is to increase carrier (electron and/or hole) mobilities. One method for increasing carrier mobility is to introduce an appropriate strain into the Si lattice.
The application of stresses or strains changes the lattice dimensions of the Si-containing. By changing the lattice dimensions, the energy gap of the material is changed as well. The change may only be slight in intrinsic semiconductors resulting in only a small change in resistance, but when the semiconducting material is doped, i.e., n-type, and partially ionized, a very small change in the energy bands can cause a large percentage change in the energy difference between the impurity levels and the band edge. Thus, the change in resistance of the material with stress is large.
Prior attempts to provide strain-based improvements of semiconductor substrates have utilized etch stop liners or embedded SiGe structures. N-type channel field effect transistors (nFETs) need tension on the channel for strain-based device improvements, while p-type channel field effect transistors (pFETs) need a compressive force on the channel for strain-based device improvements. Further scaling of semiconducting devices requires that the strain levels produced within the substrate be controlled and that new methods be developed to increase the strain that can be produced.
In view of the state of the art mentioned above, there is a continued need for providing strained-Si substrates in bulk-Si or SOI substrates in which the substrate can be appropriately strained for both nFET and pFET devices.